Emily took to Facebook to share her painful experience and hopefully prevent future situations like these.

"As much as I feel self conscious about sharing my photos, and my story, I know it’s the right thing to do. If reading this post prevents one person from experiencing the pain that I have, then my accident won't have been in vain. Do you know the potential danger of diffusing essential oils? If you asked me four days ago whether I thought I would be a victim of chemical burns on my face and eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. You always think 'this won't happen to me'. But this time it did," Emily wrote on Facebook.

Emily was relaxing at home with her fiancé and turned on her fireplace, along with the essential oil diffuser. She then went over to the diffuser and held it down for a number of seconds, to turn it off as usual. While turning the diffuser off, some vapor accidentally sprayed her face.

A few hours later, Emily went to add logs to her fireplace and immediately started to feel her face burning. She was unsure why her face was hurting and didn't realize there was any connection between the diffuser and the flames.

As the night went on, the pain started to get worse, so she ran her face under water to ease the pain for 10 minutes. She eventually decided to seek medical attention over the phone. After Emily described her condition to the operator and she was assured that she didn't need to come in to get treatment, and that using cold water, aloe vera, and Vaseline would suffice. She followed those instructions and went to bed.

When Emily woke up the next morning, her face was so swollen that she finally decided to go to the hospital and receive medical treatment. Emily added, that she could have prevented her face from burning as badly as it did, if she would have sought in-person medical attention immediately.

"Whilst I treated my ‘burn’ symptoms correctly, had I been aware about the true dangers of these oils coming into contact with my skin even through water vapor from the diffuser, I would have sought medical treatment immediately and my face would not have continued to burn. When I followed the instructions given by medical professionals and ran my burns under the tap, I was not removing the oil. Oil does not just ‘wash’ off. When I soaked my face in a bowl of water, I was not really relieving my burn," she wrote.

If you ever come in contact with any chemical that you think may be harmful to your skin, it's important to seek medical attention immediately.

"My face and eyes were chemically burned. I'm extremely fortunate to have my sight at all, and lucky that the burn wasn't worse, but I have suffered permanent eye damage and am potentially facially scarred for life," Emily said.